I was utterly taken back by this book! The suspense is unbelievable and the black and white illustrations are breath-taking. One Scary Night is about a young boy who finds himself alone in the dark woods on a cold winter night. A thick, heavy snow begins to fall but the boy keeps pressing on as he realizes that something is following him. The boy starts sprinting when a fierce wolf is after him, but it is too late. The wolf leaps after the boy, grabs hold of him and tackles him to the ground. At the same time that the wolf lunges after the boy, a giant tree collapses and come to find out, the wolf actually rescues the boy. The wolf prevented the tree from coming down on the boy, therefore saving his life.
The book ends with the boy hugging the wolf and then getting escorted out of the woods into safety by his new friend. This is a lovely story about friendship and looking out for others. Something that appeared to be so scary, ended up saving a little boy's life. Don't judge a book by its cover (or by its title in this case) definitely applies here.
I used this book as a read-aloud with two second-graders that I work with. I was interested to see how they would react to reading a wordless book. They were just as intrigued as I was the first time reading it; their little eyes were glued to the pages wondering what was going to happen next and commenting with every turn of the page. After this experience, they have a much greater appreciation for illustrations and truly understand how powerful illustrations can be.
I was not expecting to be taken on such a wonderful journey. Of all the books I've blogged about thus far, this is by far my favorite! I cannot wait to buy this book for my classroom. Yah!
I remember the presentation on wordless books, and I initially thought I would never take an interest in these books. I thought books from this genre were geared more for children who have not learned to read yet, but I obviously was proven wrong. This book really changed my outlook on wordless books. I never realized illustrations can tell such a great story. I really liked the contrast of white and black in this book. I usually love colorful pages, but I felt using only two colors helped the reader stay concentrated on the story. The message I got out of this book was that you many people will become friend with people they least expect. Though you may be different than that person, and assume you have nothing in common, it is important to stay open. The best kinds of friendships I can think of are with people that are very different than you, but you both take an interest in each other, and want to learn more about each other.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kyle, I didn't really have any interest with the wordless books until you started talking about this one. It was a very unique book and really grabbed my attention. This is most definitely a book that I will be keeping in my classroom no matter what grade level i am teaching.
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